Bikes and trikes, particularly the smaller more inexpensive ones designed to be used on the sidewalk, often employ wheels made primarily of plastic to minimize the cost of the wheels. Invariably, however, these wheels are all formed differently depending upon their locations on the velocipede. For example, in the direct-driven tricycle, the front wheel hub is specially shaped to receive a pedal crank. On the other hand, a chain-driven bicycle or tricycle has a front wheel whose hub is shaped to receive a simple axle, while the rear wheel of that velocipede has a hub which is arranged and adapted to accommodate a sprocket with or without a one-way clutch. Thus different molds or dies are required to form the different wheels used in those different applications and such wheels must be separately inventoried.
Furthermore, it is customary to offer these velocipedes in a knocked-down condition to minimize the amount of labor required by the manufacturer and also to minimize shipping and storage costs. To this end, the velocipedes are designed so that their component parts occupy a minimum amount of space in order to obtain the most favorable postage and delivery charges. However, the front wheel of a pedal-driven tricycle for example, by its very nature, occupies a relatively large amount of space due to the oppositely directed pedal cranks which project out on opposite sides of the front wheel. In fact, that front wheel may be the limiting factor on the thickness of the shipping carton containing a tricycle. Accordingly, the cost of shipping and handling the knocked-down pedal-driven velocipede is not as low as might be desired.